Video of a former UCLA basketball star exchanging gunfire with police hours before taking his own life was released on Friday.
Body camera footage and audio recorded by the Los Angeles Police Department was made public a month after Tyler Honeycutt was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot
The clip shows Honneycutt fire at police from through a window located in the back of his southern California home while cops attempt to negotiate his peaceful surrender.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/embed/video/1749038.html
On July 6, Honeycutt’s mother frantically called 911 to say that her son was threatening to kill himself and possibly under the influence of drugs.
Honeycutt’s mother, whose identity has not been released, said that the 27-year-old had been ‘huffing nitrous oxide’ and had not slept or eaten in days, according to LAPD Cmdr. Alan Hamilton.
‘Huffing’ is a method of breathing in fumes in order to achieve a euphoric effect.
She also warned the LAPD that Honeycutt was armed with a loaded ’10 millimeter pistol’ and a shotgun kept inside the house.
‘I need somebody quickly. The police, an ambulance, whatever. My son’s having a psychotic break. He has guns in the house so I’m really worried,’ the mother said, adding that he believed she was ‘conspiring against him.’
As they arrived to the scene, police meet Honeycutt’s mother who breathlessly tells them that he’s holding a gun and sitting on a bed while holding his ‘guard dog’ by the collar.
She informs the officers that her son is a professional basketball who had just returned home from overseas where he spent six months ‘sucking laughing gas.’
‘I think it screwed up his brain,’ she tells the officers.
Attempts to communicate with Honneycutt via voice command and telephone repeatedly fail as authorities assure the troubled young man that he has yet to break any laws and only desire to end the situation peacefully.
‘I’m just trying to resolve this as peacefully as possible,’ the officer says.
At one point, body camera footage shows an officer warn that he can see Honeycutt pointing his gun at police through the window.
Seconds later, a bullet rings out and nearly misses a cop by inches.
The bullet shattered a glass window struck a wall immediately to the officer’s right, prompting the cop to respond with his own gunfire.
Given the danger of the armed standoff, a tactical SWAT unit is called in for backup as negotiations continue.
After hours of attempting to establish contact with Honeycutt, SWAT breached the interior of the house only to discover the former basketball star unresponsive.
The Los Angeles native had no prior criminal record or history of mental illness.
He played two seasons for the UCLA men’s basketball team before declaring for the NBA draft in 2011.
Honeycutt was drafted in the second round by the Sacramento Kings and had stints there and with the Houston Rockets before he went abroad to continue his professional basketball career, according to KTLA.
SOURCE: DailyMail, by DANIEL ROTH
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